Now what?

I tried to edit that last post : "Well...". because it posted before I was finished composing it. I typed in the information that I wanted to include, but the program would not let it post!?!?

I was just going to comment that I had resolved the picture size and it was posting in a size that you can view it all . Now, I f I can only fix the other problems! Smiling! as I type!!

Well..

at least the picture is now the right size so you can see it all. I wish the other problems would get fixed as easily! :-)

Frustration!!!

That is what I am feeling right now!!!
I can't seem to get any more of my pics to load to my computer. I have tried to use the jump drive Karen sent me, and the cd disc I got at Walgreen's, but I must be missing a step or something. I get all kinds of computer messages, but can't get any pictures! Then I tried to upload a pic of Ron and I to my Blog page. The site told me it was 'shrinking my pic to fit the space but as you can see...it wasn't successful. Some things are accomplished so easily when I try to navigate through this site, but I wish there were better instructions, sometimes, for those of us who have trouble at times. Is there no "Home Page" you can go to to ask for help? I can't seem to find it if there is one.
Okay! I'm going todrop this subject for now, and calm down. Maybe next time I'll have happier things to say :-)

Kirk's Early Birthday

The evening before we left to go back out to Oregon for Karen's surgery, we met Kirk, Stacy, and Emily at the Mexican restaurant in Tipton. Kevin and Cory and Maggy, and Dakota and his girlfriend Casey came too.

Here is Emily smiling big for the camera. This was before she pitched a fit about wanting to hold this cup by herself to get a drink!

Here is Maggy enjoying one of her favorites--Chips and salsa!. Casey is in the background. Cory had gathered Maggy's hair into a ponytail to get it out of her face.

Kevin and Ron are 'fixing up' the salsa to make it spicier. I think they almost got it too spicy.

Since we knew Kirk's birthday was going to be while we were gone---we decided to sing Happy Birthday to him. The proprieters heard us and brought him this sombrero to wear (and a shot of ?something?,too!). Then sang a Spanish version of a Happy Birthday song to him. He has already grown his mustache and beard for the cold season, and also because 'deer season' starts in just a few days.

This pic will have to be sideways since I forgot to turn it before I uploaded it. You can see how red his face got when he realized they had brought him that shot of ?something? He didn't want to offend them since they had brought it to him to be nice. They did not speak much English so he could explain about it...so he just drank it. They thought they had really done him a favor!!

[ I'm glad Kistopher and I figured out how to get my pics where I could get them to upload for blogging. Thanks, Kris!]

What is "Bugging" you???

Do you have little things that bug you? Even when you are having a wonderful conversation with your really good friends...and something happens -either something they say or do, or something about their 'person' [ie the way they're dressed or something on their clothes etc.], or something going on in the area you are in- that is just "NOT RIGHT"!! No matter how you try to ignore it...you just want to "FIX IT"!

Sometimes I can sucessfully ignore it. Sometimes I can't. And that has cost me a time or two. For some reason, my attempts to "fix" my friend were something that "bugged" them. Most of the time, now, I manage to keep my mouth shut. I hope that means that since my age has advanced, I have also reached a measure of maturity, too. LOL!

Since I am the sixth daughter in my family, and the one next to me was 12 years older than me...you can figure that my parents were older than most of the kids my age. They came from an age where achievement in school was revered and expected. You didn't 'pass' from one grade to another until you had earned that honor! On top of that, they were both "wordsmiths". They read a lot and used 'big' words, did the daily crossword in the paper, things like that. Maybe because of that environment, and those genes, I rarely had trouble with spelling and vocabulary in school. I could visualize the word [most of the time] and literally "see" how it was spelled. I didn't understand, for a long time, that other people could not DO that! I am NOT 100% right all of the time, though, I get 'hung-up' on some of the 'tricky' parts of spelling, too. Some things I have just had to practice till I got them right, or just use a 'trick' of my own to help me remember.

I've been observing some things for a while, in speech and spelling used today, that have "bugged" me enough that I have tried to figure out the "why" of it. I have decided that one reason kids have trouble spelling is they have heard a lot of "lazy speech" from us. We don't pronounce things very distinctly and when a kid tries to sound out a word they write down what they hear. For instance: How is a kid going to know the difference between their, there, and they're if they all sound the same? So they write "Their deciding whether to put their stuff in that closet, or over their , in that one." instead of "They're deciding whether to put their stuff in that closet, or over there, in that one." Some things you just have to learn: the difference between loose and lose for example. If I say: "I need to loose some weight." Do I have it tied up somewhere and I need to let it free? LOSE is the word to use here. There are many other examples, but now you know what has been "bugging" ME lately. Have I "bugged" you with this? Do you have something "bugging" you that you would like to post on your blog?
{Oops! there is another one : when to use your and you're!]
Thanks for listening to my fussing! I feel better now! Heehee

I just HAVE to post this!

So, a few minutes ago I was sitting here reading my friends blogs, just minding my own business... All of a sudden I heard this big crash/bang noise in my kitchen. I was almost afraid to walk in there, but as I am heading down the hall, I hear Ron calling from downstairs "Judy? Did something fall? Are you okay?" By that time I have reached the kitchen door and am looking inside to see my cat, Babie, is after something along the base of the cabinet or under the stove. I tell Ron that I think the cat is after a mouse and then he [the cat] comes prancing out of the kitchen with a mouse tail dangling out of his mouth. About that time he drops the mouse, and then pounces on it again as it tries to run away. This happens several times and Ron [still downstairs!] suggests that maybe I can get him to take it outside. So I go to the backdoor and call him...but there is NO WAY that cat is taking the mouse outside!! When I come back into the living room I see that the mouse is very dead...but Babie still wants it to "play" so he bats it up and down the hall for a while. I decided to call Karen and tell her what was going on because of her recent blog about a mouse at their house; and while I am talking to her the mouse 'mysteriously' disappears. [I'm pretty sure Babie ate it!] BTW the noise I heard in the kitchen was the cat running into a little step stool and knocking it into the cabinet base. He also slid on a rug and ran into the stove while he was chasing the mouse down.
And, oh yeah... just went out to the car to get something Ron left out there. When I came back and went to hang up my coat in the closet... there was the dead mouse! I guess Babie batted it a little too hard and it went under the closet door. So glad I found it tonight. Ron would have really had a fit if he had seen it there in the morning!!! He can't stand mice!
HMMM! The reason for that would make a nice post for another time...

Its the Middle of the Night...

...and you hear this bloodcurdling scream! Yikes! What is going on...?

I'm laughing now, because I just read Mandy's blog, but it isn't very funny at the moment it happens, is it?
A couple of times it was Karl screaming. Once, unbeknownst to me , he had gone to sleep with a root beer barrel candy in his mouth. The candy fell out of his mouth on to his pillow and as he rolled his head in his sleep it stuck to his ear. He came awake thinking he had a bug attached to his ear. More than that, he just knew it was a JuneBug, which he HATES to this day! Another time,again in his sleep, he was 'sleepriding his bicycle' in his bed. Literally in an upright position pedaling away. Of course he tripped over his covers and fell and hit his ear on the dresser that was by his bed. Try to figure THAT out when you've been awakened out of a sound sleep! Unfortunately, it meant a trip to the ER to stitch up his ear, too. BTW, the ER personnel really look at you funny when you are trying to explain how your child got an injury like that!
Once or twice it has been me that was screaming! Kristopher woke up with some kind of a problem one night that he thought he needed to bring to me. He didn't want to wake his Dad by calling for me from the hall/door so he very gently and softly came into my room and touched my soulder or face. I came just barely awake to see this person leaning over me and I let out a scream that scared Kristopher so bad he ran screaming down the hall away from our room. Ron jumped out of bed yelling "Whats going on? What's gong on? Judy, are you all right?Who else is screaming? Is somebody hurt? Somebody answer me!!" By this time all of the boys were up from downstairs and Kirk and Karen had come out of their rooms, too. It took a while to sort it all out, but by that time we ALL had a good laugh and with hugs all around went back to bed until morning. All of the kids learned that night that if they needed me they had better be sure I heard them coming to get me! [I've been laughing so hard while I write this that I have gone through 2 tissues just to wipe my tears!]
Thanks Mandy for causing me to remember a few funny episodes in our family history!